China has called on Israel to stop expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank and reverse its actions, while urging the full reopening of access to Gaza.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the call during a meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on the sidelines of a conference in Azerbaijan on Thursday, according to China’s foreign ministry.
Wang described the Palestinian question as “the greatest historical injustice of this century” and said the immediate priority was to ensure full access to Gaza and stop the worsening humanitarian situation.
China is willing to work with the international community to bring the parties back to dialogue and seek a political solution to the conflict, Wang said.
Beijing has long supported Palestinian statehood and maintains that a two-state solution is the appropriate path to resolving the conflict. It has also sought a greater role in mediating disputes across the Middle East.
In 2023, China brokered an agreement to restore diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia after years of hostility. Earlier this year, it joined Pakistan in efforts to propose a ceasefire in the war involving the United States, Israel and Iran.
China also hosted rival Palestinian factions in 2024, securing an agreement to form an interim national reconciliation government for the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The agreement was never implemented.
Herzog said the meeting with Wang focused on relations between China and Israel and the situation in the Middle East. “I emphasised Israel’s desire for peace in the region, alongside the strategic threats to our security, first and foremost from Iran and its terror proxies,” Herzog wrote in a post on X.
China maintains close ties with Iran and is the largest buyer of Iranian oil, which has faced US sanctions linked to Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The meeting comes as Palestinians in Gaza continue to face Israeli strikes, displacement and food insecurity, one year after a ceasefire took effect in October 2025.
Although large-scale bombardment has stopped, Israel has continued carrying out strikes in Gaza. More than 1,400 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the ceasefire began, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. The United Nations considers the ministry’s figures reliable.
The US-brokered ceasefire was the first phase of an agreement intended to end the war triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.
Progress towards the next phase has stalled, with Israel and Hamas accusing each other of violating the agreement.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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